Like Happiness begins with a New Yorky scene. One that captures the stickiness and muck and strangely alluring grit of its subway rides. But also the forced physical proximity to performers whose music and moves are edged with aggressive asks.
Widows outnumber widowers. The reasons? Many men remarry, and historically, more men have died in wars. Moreover, as Mineke Schipper notes in Widows, 10% of widows today live in extreme poverty, underscoring the vulnerability braided into widowhood.
Culinary Soul Search
In October 2015, Siddharth Kapila decided to quit his law career. He wanted to travel, find himself, engaging in seemingly care-free acts that only the reasonably well-off can consider. He was aware too of how these choices were girded by privilege.
Loneliness Breeds Polarization
Loneliness might not just be an American scourge anymore, but could be seeping into other societies. Teens and aging parents can feel lonely inside families, just as partners might feel adrift inside marriages.
Saikat Majumdar’s novels have a kaleidoscopic quality – you jiggle them this way and that, and you perceive new symmetries, different colours. I had read some of his later works, The Remains of the Body,
Saunter through the grassy expanses of Cubbon Park on a Saturday morning to encounter the metronomic thump of the BHUKMP runners, their feet synchronized like an acapella group. Zoom in to the blur of faces on those taut bodies to spot the wildly popular Pankaj Rai,
In the throbbing, trafficky heart of our city, history and creativity collide. From ancient sculptures and textiles to modern paintings and pop culture treasures, the Museum of Art and Photography (MAP) has it all. The sleek steel facade with its embossed cross pattern spans six floors.
Feral Winds, Creeping Despair
In “Dread” and “Hunger”, two stories in A Bouquet of Dead Flowers, the Hindi writer Swadesh Deepak explores the unsettling intertwining of desire and deprivation. And of predatory instincts that simmer in situations marked by unequal power relations.
Where Play Fuels Genius
Mitchel Resnick’s book is a critical read for many reasons. But especially because Resnick practices the learning approaches he endorses, and not just at any place, but at one of the meccas of education – MIT.
Vedic Monism Meets Sufism
Sufism embodies mystical strands in Islam. When large numbers of Sufis swept into India in the 12th Century, their philosophy echoed the Vedic concept of “monism”. With “service to humanity” as their abiding ideal,
Curiosity Sparks Cake Making
Anu Sinha was only 11-years-old and in Class Five, when she baked her first cake. Growing up in the early ‘80s in the Bokaro Steel City, she hadn’t thought much about cakes or ovens,
Assam has a rich history shaped by its indigenous cultures, the Ahom dynasty’s six-century reign, and British colonial rule. The State played a pivotal role in India’s struggle for independence but has since simmered with ethnic conflicts and movements for autonomy.
In the lush surroundings of Barbari, “a small town with a big population” nestled close to the tea garden of Kalguri, the narrator grows up in a world that feels relatively cushioned.
Barbari,
An Encounter with Her Own Fame
Like her books, Agatha Christie’s life contained layers and mysteries. Once while travelling on a train, incognito, she heard two other middle-aged women discussing her. With her books on their laps signifying how widespread her readership was,
I’m probably not the first writer to consider how anthropologists and novelists are remarkably similar. Both pay attention to seemingly ordinary stuff – rituals, habits, rumors, gossip, everyday frictions, tiny miracles or small setbacks that stitch up our everydays.
Jamia Millia: Sparked by a Crisis
Jamia Millia Islamia was forged by a crisis. A response to Gandhi’s call for non-cooperation required an abandoning of settings funded or supported by the British. Indian Muslims who withdrew from Aligarh Muslim University had to quickly cobble together a place that would fuse modern lessons with Islamic traditions.
We are all housed inside our bodies. Yet, many of us may not feel “at home” – perhaps because our identity or sexuality or racial or ethnic origins may compel us to feel like perpetual outsiders.
I live in what is called the “startup capital” of the nation. While we have witnessed the voracious swallowing of erstwhile villages into a mushrooming city, many of us peer from the rims into a dizzying vortex of startups founded,
Growing Together: Childhood with a Twin
As the daughter of an army officer, Tina Mansukhani Garg was accustomed to moving around the country, switching schools, navigating new localities, learning languages, tasting unfamiliar foods.
For those of you who have read A House For Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul, The Naipauls of Nepaul Street feels like a rich ploughing into the soil that birthed the famed novel.
Kabir is both widely known and cited, but also obscure. Few know about his own life and origins. Some believe he was abandoned by a Brahmin widow and later raised by Muslims. Historians refute this.
Mumbai is a city that oozes mayhem, murder and mischief. The layered island city is an apt setting for young adult detectives whose summer has been hemmed in by a contagious, pockmarking disease: chicken pox.
The first compelling graphic novel I read was Persepolis in which a young Iranian girl grows up through the Islamic revolution. Persian Nights by Alaka Rajan Skinner also brings the revolution into our sights,
Given that hordes are already accessing ChatGPT, or AI in some form or the other, Madhumita Murgia’s book on the human consequences of an “intelligence” that is being rapidly unfurled across domains – from buttressing legal arguments to diagnosing medical conditions,
I hadn’t realized till I encountered this book that at a certain period in the 19th Century, Britain was in fact a Muslim Empire. As John Slight, currently a Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History at The Open University puts it in The Hajj and Britain’s Muslim Empire,
Even in 2024, India’s female workforce participation is appallingly lower than it should be for an economy that claims to be zipping ahead of many others. It’s both instructive and salutary to read of forceful women from the nation’s past,
Every once in a while, in our digitally-addled age, it feels both necessary and worthwhile to dip into a Cal Newport book or article. As an MIT-trained scientist who also teaches the subject at Georgetown University,
At business events or even at social to-dos, Shilpa Sharma has often faced a sudden tap on the shoulder, followed by an awestruck: “Omigod, you’re the founder of Jaypore?” Soon enough, women in the room flock to her with fangirl giggles and selfie requests.
A City of Endless Rebirths
All cities and urban spaces are works in the making. Perhaps, some more than others. To read the history of Delhi (or the many histories of many Delhis) is to read the history of a nation,
These are the kinds of questions that Hari TN wrestles with on evening walks, or late at night, when shafts of moonlight seep through curtains: Why does the velocity of light stay constant in different frames of reference?
From 1998 to 2008, Akshaya Bahibala was lighting up joints, swigging beer and rum, then smoking a few more joints, and so on till “[one] day you look at a calendar by mistake. You realize you have lost a lot of years smoking and rolling,
In her Introduction to Heartburn, Nora Ephron, observes how women novelists are often diminished for borrowing stuff from their own lives. Often, with the aspersion that their novels are memoirs, “thinly disguised.” It’s not as if male writers do not rake through the skeletal remains of past marriages or other story-worthy life events.
Sometimes all it takes to retreat into a forgotten childhood is to pick up a children’s book. The Case of the Missing Turtles brings back the thrilling vibes once evoked by the Five Find-Outers (one of Enid Blyton’s mystery series that had many of us conjuring mysteries in our own humdrum backyards).
Overcoming Obstacles, Charting Paths
Sandra Gail Lambert was only 10 years old when she realized that she would have to forge her own pathway through an unfriendly world. The obstacle she confronted then was a physical one,
Marwari Warmth, A Young Apprentice
Nidhi Nahata grew up in a Mumbai Marwari household, infused with the sounds and smells of rich, homemade foods: “Khaana with a lot of ghee, even the paneer,
For those who wish to pick up this book, let me start with the ritual “spoiler alert.” I’d also like to add, that to uncover “who’s done it?” is probably not the only reason to read this.
Heaving Debt and Doubts
Karthika Annamalai was only two years old when her father died. Stories swirl, to date, about the cause of his death. Relatives on Amma’s side insist he was murdered.
All our lives, however ordinary or otherwise, are imbued with a sense of drama. But it takes a certain kind of eye to observe the humdrum and distill it to a riveting, stage-worthy performance. Vijay Padaki,
Neema Avashia grew up in an America that wasn’t typically inhabited by folks like her. West Virginia wasn’t where most Indian Americans headed. Asians constituted a miniscule 0.5 % of the population in a state that birthed televangelists and country singers.
Those of us who see ourselves as being lifelong learners would do well to read Michael Roth’s dive into the history and makeup of students. Roth, who is currently the President of Wesleyan University and a Professor,
A question is often posed of a new friend or potential life partner: are you a beach or mountain person? The answer perhaps is immaterial, but the question might be trying to uncover something else: how do you handle change?
In 1936, Mahatma Gandhi had been besotted by the post-monsoon greens of Sandur in Bellary. And affixed it with a touristy descriptor: “See Sandur in September.” Vasudhendra, the widely feted Kannada author of Mohanaswamy,
Meraki is a Greek word. It means doing something with passion, attentiveness and care. Yosha Gupta certainly pours herself into the startup she’s created, as does her 17-member team, and the artists they support on MeMeraki.
In Notes on a Marriage, Carvalho observes that it’s not just weddings, but even marriages that are performative. Anju and Freddo have been married for (gasp!) twenty years, but she still acts out in his presence.
Uncles, Aunties and Banter on Buses
In If It’s Monday It Must Be Madurai, Srinath Perur subverts the common trope of a travel writer. Instead of traveling alone, or to rarely explored,
Reading this book by Upamanyu Chatterjee at a time when the world is rocked by wars, the ever-throbbing threats of climate change and new pandemics feels like an entry into a mindfulness retreat. A zone where small changes feel as significant,
What Prompted Dear Men
Prachi Gangwani had an unusual insider’s take on Indian relationships. As a “sex and relationships” columnist for an online women’s lifestyle magazine, she probably read a barrage of comments.
Dosa Debates with Paati
Vidya Madhavan’s Paati (grandmom) was a fierce and opinionated woman. Growing up in a joint family in Bombay (now Mumbai), in a typically cramped household, Vidya recognizes that many of her thoughts and values were shaped by her grandparents.
Nena is allergic to water. So she has an annual bath. By first embalming herself in petroleum, then dunking a cold water bucket over her head. To survive this yearly ordeal, she wraps herself in layers of cotton,
One of my favorite poems about aging with a cheerful insouciance starts like this:
“When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.”
Meenakshi Menon,
Plumbing into her own family’s ancestral past, Jael Silliman revives snippets of the rich and little-known history of Baghdadi Jews in Shalome Rides a Royal Elephant. Though targeted at young readers, and narrated by a sprightly,
We are awash with news and commentary about AI. The huge boons and concomitant scares, the soft and perilous blurring between human cleverness and machined ingenuity. We’re inundated to a degree where we might feel surprisingly lured by natural stupidity.
The Yellow Sparrow, translated from the Manipuri by Rubani Yumkhaibam, has a poignant genesis. As a transgender woman or Nupi Maanbi in Manipur, the author, Santa Khurai had always struggled to belong.
Chronicling an Artist’s Quest
I recall learning “The Owl and the Pussycat” for an elocution contest. And encountering the nonsensical, memorable “Piggy-wig”, which had merrily enough for us chuckling readers, “a ring at the end of his nose.” The author of this well-known poem,
Ravi CA had resolved at a fairly early stage that time mattered more than the accumulation of stuff. After working for twenty years in an IT career, he quit the well-paying, beaten path to pursue an interest that many would fence into after hours.
Of late, I have become rather fascinated and even slightly obsessed with endurance athletes. For instance, I recently stumbled on the Netflix movie on Diana Nyad, a woman who swam from Cuba to Florida at the age of 60.
We live in an age in which there seems to be a surfeit of extraordinary people. Superstar founders, sportspersons, writers, singers and stand-up comedians. Even failures in various fields have acquired an aura of extraordinariness.
From Boardrooms to Backstreets
Arun Maira has been in the trenches. Of business and government. Despite occupying some of the highest positions – as Chairman of the Boston Consulting Group, as a Member of the Planning Commission under Manmohan Singh or currently as Chairman of HelpAge International – he has never lost sight of those at the lowest rungs of the ladder.
Rajasthan is often framed in touristy stereotypes: of forts, palaces, erstwhile maharajas, sparkling sands of the Thar Desert, and camels no doubt, offering a discomfiting, double-humped ride through arid lands. Only a few would be acquainted with the complex ecology surrounding traditional camel breeders,
It’s fortunate for us that Indian cities are spawning enthusiastic guides whose knowledge about these spaces can deepen our own engagement as inhabitants or visitors. Swapna Liddle is the kind of expert you would be fortunate to walk around with in Delhi.
I have often wondered about the lives of street vendors. Not just about how much they make or what they sell, but about the makeup of their everyday lives – displaying a kind of toughness or resilience,
Teaching history has perhaps always been fraught. Given the contemporary recognition of subjectivity embedded in any account of the past or present, lingering questions about whose story or version approaches the ‘truth’ makes the content of any prescribed textbook iffy.
On a Saturday in January 2023, Shruti Sah and Harsh Snehanshu had what felt like a whimsical idea. To carry a mat, a few books and cycle over to Cubbon Park to read. Both craved a book club that didn’t center around discussions – after all,
Sebastien Tutenges, currently an Associate Professor of Sociology at Lund University, had been planning to embark on a study at a Buddhist monastery. Instead, by somewhat serendipitous means, he became curious about why so many young people seek intoxicating escapes.
Carolyn Chen was surprised by Silicon Valley. She expected it to be one of the least religious places. Instead, she found that among the tech executives she interviewed, that “it is one of the most religious places in America.” She argues in Work Pray Code that the “Gods” have merely been supplanted.
Tejo Tungabhadra, written originally in Kannada by the versatile Vasudhendra, and translated deftly by Maithreyi Karnoor, brings to life a glittering panoply of 15th and 16th Century characters. Yanking readers into times when Sati was not just thrust upon Indian widows but fiercely celebrated,
Surviving India with Imodium
India hardly feels like a nation that would be easy for anyone, inbred veteran or fleeting visitor, to digest. So it’s apt that a book titled Digesting India starts with the author recounting experiences of the opposite: of loose motions,
A Teen’s Bold Charter School Support
Vivek Ramakrishnan was only 16 years old, and a high-school student at West High School, in Madison, Wisconsin, when the school board held a televised meeting. To discuss a proposal for a new charter school.
Russian Writers Probe Existential Depths
In Wonder Confronts Certainty, Gary Saul Morson, one of the most eminent Slavic scholars in the US, suggests that Russian writers were a distinct breed.
Amma’s Daughters: Evoking Nostalgia
Reading Amma’s Daughters by Meenal Shrivastava evokes the bittersweetness of listening to Kishore Kumar’s hit songs. It’s a book that yanks you – like the legendary singer’s tenor and baritone – into earlier times,
Flipping Pans and Pages
Suraj Moraje cooks every day. Sometimes, pasta made from scratch, the flour and salt combined with eggs, the dough kneaded and patted aside, partitioned, thinned out, and scissored into strips.
Remember Shankar Mahadevan’s Breathless? The Booker-winning Girl, Woman, Other has that quality of indefatigability to it. It’s like the author has all these tales packed into her, and she narrates them in a gush,
When it feels like we’re flailing in briny tides of content – to use that much-bandied, landscape-flattening term – it’s unsurprising to encounter self-help material to cultivate our eroding capacities for attention. So when I spotted Mindwandering at a local bookstore,
Globally, rising numbers of people are choosing to stay single. So much so, that Bella DePaulo, currently an academic affiliate with U.C., Santa Barbara, advocates for a “single studies discipline.” At a time when many long-held human beliefs are being rightfully questioned,
In earlier eras, those who crossed oceans to ‘discover’ new continents or forge trade linkages were exalted as adventurers and risk-takers. It takes, however, a different kind of courage to journey into one’s own consciousness,
Occupying the Last Bench
Sriram recalls growing up with a strong, independent streak. Even as a toddler in Bhopal, where he lived for the first six years of his life, he was fetched from school by an auto driver,
Yellowface might represent a striving author’s fantasy. Especially in the contemporary era, when there seem to be more writers than readers; when only a lucky few climb to bestselling lists or are feted at literary festivals,
A recent Instagram post claimed that many writers or readers have, at some point or the other, harbored a certain dream: of running a bookstore-cum-cafe. After all, the enterprise is imbued with a romantic whimsy,
Many readers might be understandably turned off by any book title that contains words like “existential” or “post-modern” or “post-structural.” After all these terms summon certain stereotypical images: of smoky cafes filled with garrulous intellectuals,
Kirti Poonia is a new mom. Teer, her five-month-old son, occasionally pops into our Zoom conversation. Understandably, she worries about his future. With climate change already sweeping into our shores in various forms – more intense wildfires in Canada,
A Journey Around My Room was first published in French, in 1794. Its author introduced a world – that was then taken in by the fantastical accounts of sea voyagers like Ferdinand Magellan or Captain James Cook – to a new form of exploration: room travel.
As we’re nearing the end of Pride Month, I thought I would feature a book that I read awhile back and was enchanted by for many reasons. To be honest, I was looking for any Young Adult Romance – not necessarily LGBT-centered – but one that resonated with current teenage readers.
I’ve always been curious about how the Obamas tided over the Trump years when many of their attempts to change the social and political landscape were overturned. The Light We Carry offers some glimpses.
Angela Saini approaches the past with an engineer’s precision: foraging inside historical, archeological, and anthropological records for real glimmers of how things were. This is unsurprising. After all, she holds two Master’s degrees. One in Engineering from Oxford University and another in Science and Security from the Department of War Studies at King’s College,
The Drona Ekalavya story is familiar to many Indians. To reiterate the most commonly shared version, Ekalavya, who belongs to what was then considered a low-caste tribe, desperately wants to learn archery from Drona. The Guru however is forbidden from teaching him,
The Immortal King Rao is many things. It’s a bildungsroman for sure, graphing its narrator’s life, from her strange birth to her present predicament, where she claims to be unjustly imprisoned for a crime she did not commit.
Let’s start with what one might call a ‘fun fact.’ Or for the more ponderous folks, an origin story. Why is Mysore called Mysore? In the Netflix show on royal Indian kitchens, Raja, Rasoi aur Anya Kahaniyan,
The Economists Turn To Hope
Across the globe, hope maybe a tricky emotion to summon. After all, we’re inundated with warnings about impending disasters: accelerating climate change, layoffs triggered by AI, new pandemics,
Paul Bloom has achieved something that many academics might hanker for but rarely attain: popularity. Not just among students at the University – currently the University of Toronto, and earlier, for 21 years, Yale – at which he teaches,
From Living at a Hostel to Joining a Startup
Apaar Gupta spent his formative school years in a hostel. As a student of the Birla Public School at Pilani, he learned, early on,
An Academic Who Relishes Conversations
Paula Marantz Cohen is currently a Professor of English and the Dean of a college at Drexel University. Despite being deeply erudite, sharp and incisive in her writing,
Tessa West delves into a topic that anyone who has worked anywhere can relate to. Anyone who has had to deal with peers, subordinates and bosses. Because surely, at some point, in your career, you must have encountered a “jerk” – someone whose very presence at the office or team meeting provoked shudders,
Adrian Bejan: A Brief Dip into His Story
I rarely pick up books written by engineers. Time and Beauty is an exception. Though its author is not just an engineer, but a dauntingly accomplished one,
Engendering a Female Gaze: A Filmmaker’s Journey
A Syncretic Upbringing
Starting from her school years, Roohi Dixit had a proclivity for the arts. As the daughter of two professors, raised in an idyllic agricultural campus in Hisar,
When Distraction Unites Us
Distraction, as most of us can attest, is a global pandemic. With the rapid digitization of terrains that were earlier outside the radar of technology giants, attention deficits cut across demographics: age,
A Personal Connection to The King and I
When Priscilla Gilman watched a Broadway version of The King and I, a particular song felt like a gut punch.
Experiencing Burnout
Five years ago, Divya Khanna was afflicted by a malaise that might be familiar to Indian corporate executives: burnout. In her book, The Company We Keep, she says that she felt overwhelmed and undervalued.
Growing Up in a Turbulent Region
Born in Muzaffarnagar in the mid-1980s, Gauri Malik grew up in a region beset by turmoil. After all, since the 20th Century, Muzaffarnagar hasn’t had a sterling reputation.
A Portrait of Raj: A Young, Middle-class Indian Man
Raj, 24-years-old and a member of the Indian middle-class, hates auto drivers and woman drivers with equal fervor. He discourages his own sister from learning to drive,
As soon as I met Aryama Sen on a Zoom call, I was surprised. As a follower of her Instagram account, @ind.igenous, where she deliberately maintains anonymity, I was expecting someone older.
Staying Distinct on Social Media
Before delving into Aryama’s story,
Brinda S. Narayan
